Author: Lab Team

What HappenedAmazon continues with its master plan of conquering every room of the smart home with the launch of yet another Alexa-powered connected device. The Dash Wand, which the ecommerce giant unveiled on Wednesday night, is a cordless barcode scanner with Alexa integration. Designed specifically for kitchen use with its water-resistant, durable design, it focuses on facilitating grocery shopping from AmazonFresh. Prime members can either push a button and tell Alexa what to add to their shopping cart, like they would with an Amazon Tap. or simply use it to scan a barcode of the item they’d like to repurchase.

Thanks to the full Alexa integration, the Dash Wand also doubles as a smart kitchen aid, capable of finding recipes, converting units of measurement, or even finding nearby restaurants when your own culinary attempt fails. Notably, Amazon is essentially giving out this $20 device for free, as Prime customers will get 20 off their next purchase after registering the device.

What Brands Need To DoAmazon created a smart home product with an incredibly focused user case – helping people cook. With a water-resistant, durable design, it is designed to be used in the kitchen. From finding recipes to getting the ingredients to setting timers for the oven, Alexa can do it all, making it a super valuable addition to a modern kitchen.

For Amazon, this device serves as a gateway to attract more shoppers to use AmazonFresh, which underscores Amazon’s aggressive push into the grocery market. According to a recent report from Food Marketing Institute and Nielsen, about a quarter of American households currently buy some groceries online, and more than 70% will engage with online food shopping within 10 years. In fact, online grocery sales are expected to hold 20% of the market by 2025. No wonder Amazon is willing to give away Dash Wand for free in exchange of further locking Prime members into its ever-expanding ecosystem.

As Amazon continues to push into the grocery market, it is becoming increasingly crucial for grocery and household CPG brands to make their products available and discoverable through Amazon. For food retail chains, this should come as a wake-up call to invest in ecommerce channels of your own or forge alliances with Amazon rivals that can surface your online services via their competing smart home devices so as to reach grocery shoppers right in their kitchens.

What HappenedAmazon is launching a program that invites video content owners to create shoppable streaming apps for their content on Fire TV streaming products. The so-called “Watch and Shop apps,” which now has its own section under the Apps tab, allow Fire TV users to view and purchase a curated list of items relevant to the video they are watching. Because Fire TV viewers are already logged in with their Amazon account, they can purchase the item directly from the product description page or add it to the shopping cart for later.

What Brands Need To DoBuying products from inside a video is not a new concept — YouTube introduced a click-to-buy feature in January 2009. But with more online retailers start experimenting with interactive video each year, it becomes clear that simply dropping a link or a “Buy Now” button into a video ad is effective enough in converting customers. The friction of putting in the payment information alone is usually enough to stop shoppers in their path.

Obviously, this new program offers brands a great opportunities to explore shoppable content as both a new promotional tool and a direct sales channel. For example, a popular makeup tutorial app can create a Watch and Shop app that displays the cosmetic products that are being demoed in that particular video segment. Of course, this being an Amazon program, it would require brands to sell their products on Amazon.com.

Currently, this program is invite-only, and brands that wish to apply will need to have a Youtube channel with a minimum of 15 videos, a YouTube developer key, and, most importantly, a list of products you would like to feature in your videos, along with their unique identification number (ASIN) as listed on Amazon.com. For more information on how to apply, please check the source.

Shoppable video content has been undoubtedly on the rise for the past few years. It is especially popular among fashion and beauty brands. Birchbox, Dr. Brandt Skincare, Beautyblender, and SheaMoisture are among the first ones to try out a shoppable video layer created by video company MikMak that enables users to purchase branded products on Instagram Stories and Snap Ads with a single URL.

What HappenedThe Hallmark Channel is looking to cut the volume of ads in half for its original primetime shows starting next year. According to the network, new episodes of its original shows such as “Chesapeake Shores” and “Good Witch” will only include five to seven minutes of commercials instead of the current 15 minutes of ads. The network says that it is reducing the ad load in the hope of better competing with the ad-free viewing experiences provided by OTT services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

The Crown Media-owned channel is not the first cable network that responded to viewer’s growing ad aversion by cutting down ad load. Networks such as the History channel, A+E, and Viceland have all experimented with similar initiatives.

What Brands Need To DoBack in 2015 when Apple announced its decision to enable ad-blocking extensions in Safari in iOS 9, we advised brands to counter the trend of Ad Avoidance by trying new ad formats, sponsored and branded content, and generally improving their online ad experiences. Two years later, new unblockable ad formats, such as sponsored selfie lenses and VR product placements, have emerged or become widely available for brands to explore.

What HappenedSnapchat is going all in on self-serve ad platform and tools to make it easier for brands advertisers to create video ads and launch their campaigns with three new initiatives. To start with, the company announced the Ad Manager platform last month, and the self-serve ad platform officially became available for marketers big or small on Monday.

Snapchat also launched Snap Publisher, a browser-based creation and testing tool that makes it easier for advertisers to create vertical video ads and create Snap ads for different objectives. It is integrated with Ad Manager, so once advertisers are done optimizing their ads for Snapchat, they can simply buy through the self-serve platform with one click.

In addition, Snapchat launched a new Certified Partners program to highlight its ad tech partners, which currently include SocialCode, Adaptly, Unified, and Hyfn. Snapchat’s Ads API is open to a wide range of ad tech companies, but the ones in the Certified Partners program received some extra training as to building tools for optimizing Snap ads.

What Brands Need To DoAmid a slowed-down user growth and the mounting pressure from Facebook’s relentless copying, Snapchat is trying to make a strong case for itself to brand advertisers as a viable mobile ad channel by expanding the accessibility and accountability of its ad products.

Beyond the three initiatives launched on Monday, Snap also acquired mobile location intelligence company Placed last week to improve the offline attribution of its app, allowing advertisers to see if their Snap ads resulted in store visits. As Snapchat continues to step up its ad game and make its app more advertiser-friendly, we expect to see more brands getting on board to try out Snapchat’s unique ad products.

What HappenedTwitter is adding a new feature to Direct Messages (DM) to make it a better customer support tool for brands. Now, when brands manage their Twitter DM through Twitter’s API, they can send call-to-action buttons via direct messages that, when clicked, can direct people to visit a specific site, post a pre-written tweet, follow the brand’s account, or start a chat with another of the brand’s accounts.

What Brands Need To DoThis new addition should make Twitter DM a more convenient customer support tool to leverage and create a frictionless experience for customers. As Twitter continues to improve its chat functionality, it is attracting many brands to extend their customer support operations to Twitter DM. For example, Dutch airline KLM recently added their customer service bot to Twitter DM to better serve its global audiences that are not using Facebook Messenger, which is where KLM’s bot originally resides.

What HappenedNiantic, the company behind Pokémon Go, is celebrating the one-year anniversary of its smash hit game with a digital out-of-home campaign that utilizes real-time data to highlight its global popularity. The outdoor ads will feature real-time data from the game app in Tokyo, London, and New York, such as numbers showing how many Pokémons are being caught nearby. Some billboards are also activated as “PokéStops,” where players go to collect in-game items, as a fun, meta way of adding a real-world layer to its campaign message.

What Brands Need To DoWhile the collective fever for Pokémon Go has considerably died down since last summer, the game still holds its place as the biggest mobile game in U.S. history, and quite possibly, in the world as well. Not even the iOS release of Nintendo’s Super Mario Run managed to challenge that. Last week, the game surpassed 750 million downloads, an enviable feat that underscores the longevity of the game. This OOH ad campaign cleverly captured just how hugely popular Pokémon Go is and reminded people of the enthusiasm it commanded. Similarly, Spotify ran a well-received end-of-year OOH campaign last year that featured funny music streaming statistics. More brands should consider plugging real-time data into their digital OOH campaign to help make its case.

Pokémon Go is also widely credited as the game that introduced a lot of mobile users to augmented reality. Since its debut last summer, the mobile AR space has certainly accelerated its development, with Facebook and Apple both coming out with their own developer platforms for AR. For more information on how brands may tap into the rapid development in AR to create engaging customer experiences, please check out the Advanced Interfaces section of our Outlook 2017.

What HappenedAs Apple announced at the WWDC event last week, the dedicated Podcast app will receive a makeover in the upcoming iOS 11. Now more details have emerged about this impending update, which will bring a new interface as well as some changes to how podcasts can be structured for better presentation. Users will also be able to download a full season of podcasts at once to get their fill.

More importantly, Apple is finally opening up the in-episode analytics of podcasts for content creators beyond simple episode downloads, which will allow podcasters to get detailed information such as how many people have listened to a particular episode and where listeners stop or skip.

The iOS podcast app, although only one of the many, many channels for podcast distribution, is arguably the most popular app for listening to podcasts. In fact, a 2016 survey found that Apple-device podcast downloads outpace Android downloads at a rate of 5.4 to 1. Overcast, another p0pular podcast app, launched its own in-app display ads earlier this year to help podcasters monetize their content.

What Brands Need To DoAccording to a recent report by Edison Research, over 35 million people listened to podcasts weekly in 2016. The same report also found that U.S. podcast listeners on average earn $10,000 more than the average American, making them a highly valuable customer base for brands to target.

Yet, despite the sizable high-value audience base, many brands have been hesitant to explore podcast advertising due to its lack of accountable ROI measurement. This important update to the podcast app should spark some new interests to podcast advertising, as the in-episode analytics will allow podcasters to provide more accurate audience measurement, such as how many listeners actually listened to the episodes they downloaded and whether or not they skipped the sponsors’ messages. In a sense, it partially solves the “viewability issue” for podcast ads, giving brands more reassurance to try out podcast advertising.

These newly added metrics, which brands will need to work with podcast creators to access, should provide more transparency and clarity to podcast advertisers regarding their campaigns. In addition, brands with their own branded podcasts should leverage it to access better measurement to gauge user interests and engagements.

What HappenedZelle, a digital payment network backed by more than 30 US banks, is ready to launch after six years in development. Major banks, including Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, TD Bank, and Wells Fargo, are beginning to roll out the first stage of Zelle, which comes as a new function integrated into the banks’ owned apps. This will let customers send and receive payments for free, regardless of bank affiliation, while also allowing for instant withdrawals. A standalone app is in the works and is set to launch later this year to take on the likes of Venmo and Square Cash.

What Brands Need To DoThis news came just a week after Apple announced last week at WWDC that in the upcoming iOS 11, Apple Pay will be integrated into Messages to enable P2P payments via texting. Now with the impending roll out of Zelle, mobile payment is set to gain a significant boost in the coming months thanks to the increased accessibility of P2P payments and its resulting network effect. Financial service brands need to prepare for this by making their services compatible with the various P2P systems so as to better serve customers. Retail and ecommerce brands should consider integrating Apple Pay support for their mobile website to remove friction for online shoppers.

What HappenedDutch airline KLM was one of the first airlines to create a chatbot for Facebook Messenger, now the airline company has expanded its bot action to Twitter and WeChat as well. Rather impressively, the bots are fluent in 10 languages, helping KLM to better serve its international customers. They can provide booking confirmation, check-in notification, boarding passes, as well as flight status updates to any customers who checked in through KLM.com and elect to get their info through Twitter DM or WeChat.

What Brands Need To DoThis extended chatbot support underscores KLM’s commitment to using bots as a customer service tool to help streamline the flight check-in process. Messaging apps has become a channel for brands to effectively reach mobile customers, and bots can be a powerful and cost-effective tool for handling basic information requests, managing business bookings, and facilitating direct purchases. More brands should be coming up with a conversational strategy that includes not only how to use bots to improve their brand messaging and services but also how to properly promote the bots.

KLM is also smart to expand their chatbot support so as to better serve their international customer base. Different messaging apps enjoy varying regional popularity, as Facebook Messenger is most popular in the U.S. whereas WeChat dominates the Chinese market. Twitter DM is a good solution to cover the other global markets. For more in-depth analysis how brands can leverage global mega-channels and niche micro-channels to effectively reach key audiences across the world, check out the Global Culture section of our Outlook 2017.

What HappenedL’Oréal continues to embrace augmented reality technologies to promote its beauty products. As part of a cross-promotion with the Cannes Film Festival, the cosmetic giant is allowing users of its popular YouCam Makeup app to project 64 glamourous red carpet makeup looks from the festival onto their own face and learn makeup skills. In addition, the app also shared livestream directly from the event, hosted by beauty influencer and L’Oréal’s brand ambassador Liza Lash.

What Brands Need To DoIncreasingly we are seeing beauty brands incorporating AR technology into their services to optimize their customer experiences. L’Oreal’s Makeup Genius app and Covergirl’s BeautyU app are good examples of how beauty brands can leverage the advanced capabilities of smartphones to provide extra utility throughout the consumer journey. With Apple introducing mobile AR to iOS apps with the launch of ARKit, brands should now be more even incentivized to explore AR so as to add a little reality-bending magic to their mobile experience.

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